Only a handful of Americans have lived at this juncture and know...truly understand...what it's like to be alive at the end of a century.

Imagine it's Sept. 29, 1899, and let me recount a true story inside a Columbus, Ohio, tailor shop.

The story: A thought develops in the minds of 14 Americans. All 14 had been members of the U.S. Army's Company C, 17th Infantry. All of them had served in Cuba, fighting a war with Spain. And one of those 14 men, Oscar Brookins, had received the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest medal.

The meeting was after closing hours in a humble tailor's shop. The tailor, Francis Dubiel, was also one of the vets who fought in Cuba. They were meeting to find a way to help the veterans being discharged from the U.S. Army at the Columbus (Ohio) Barracks.

James Romanis, one of the veterans verbalized what all 14 of them felt: "Thousands of our comrades are in desperate need. Something's got to be done to help them. We've waited long enough for the government to act (help them), but nothing's happened."

Romanis voices that all 14 of them have been watching the discharged vets. They've all noticed that many of them were "sick and barely able to carry their few belongings." Romanis continues vocalizing that the discharged vets "confusion and uncertainty (is) stamped on their faces. For many of them," Romanis utters, "their worldly goods consisted of their discharge papers and the paltry few pennies of their final pay."

These men were "forgotten men" James Romanis says as he drives home his feelings. They had "volunteered and had fought gallantly to win the adulation of a grateful nation, only to come home and find their brave deeds forgotten, their jobs gone, their families suffering from hunger and neglect."

This was the conversation of the 14 men exactly 100 years ago today. And as James continued, the other 13 veterans knew he spoke what they all felt. "I say let's form an organization, right here and now, that will fight for proper treatment for our veterans. But let's don't stop there. Let's make it an organization which will demand that our country be prepared to defend itself against any enemy in the future."

This actual story was written down by James Romanis, the one who spoke in that tailor shop. Even though he penned it in 1949, it's brand new. It was published in the VFW, the Veterans of Foreign Wars' magazine's 1999 Sept. issue. Richard K. Kolb, the magazine's Editor-in-chief notes: "This account has never been published before. It was supplied courtesy of Bill Selby, unofficial historian of the (VFW) Department of Ohio."

You see, this is the story of the birth of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. It was born in a tailor shop on Sept. 29, 1899, in Columbus, Ohio. It's an eyewitness reckoning of the reason why the Veterans of Foreign Wars was created. The VFW is 100 years old and we're sharing this with only a few other mortals.

But what's our connection with the events of 1899 beyond sharing the honor of being alive at the end a century? Let me mention five for 1899. First off, the 1999 U.S.A.'s military is treated shabbily, just like in 1899. Secondly, it's in need of rebuilding in 1999 like it was in 1899. In third place, history does repeat itself for those who don't learn from it. Next, our veterans organizations like the VFW and American Legion are needed to speak up for vets just as much now as they were a century ago. And finally, the anxiety many of us feel today over the lack of our country's military readiness, Americans felt exactly 100 years ago on Sept. 29, 1899.

I say happy birthday, VFW.

Mr. Adcock is a retired Hopkins County school teacher and contributing columnist.